Method and system for forming frameless buildings

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a method of assembling frameless metal buildings by means of securing together a selected number of roll formed corrugated sheets by the use of cyclically bent corner members roll formed to identically match the roll formed sheets and holding the secured together sheets and bent corner members by mechanical fastening means to provide total load connectivity. The formed frameless buildings can be any desired shape limited only by the strength of the assembled components and the fastening elements.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/737,431, filed Dec. 14, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety herein, by this reference thereto.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to building construction, and more specifically to a method for the construction of frameless buildings using high strength corrugated panels, joined together at their junctions by using a new cyclically repetitive joining member having mechanical (non-welded) connections.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Changes in building construction have taken place over the years due to changes in technologies. For example, timber structures quickly changed from framed, post and beam construction to frameless timber construction (i.e., balloon framing) as that technology was invented in the mid-19^(th) century. Balloon framing is still the common wood framing method used for buildings. Today, low-rise metal buildings, such as commercial and residential buildings, require a framework of metal posts and beams to allow stiffened metal (corrugated) panels to be attached to them.

Sheet metal corrugated members or panels are an essential component used to form low-rise metal buildings. An endless variety of low-rise metal buildings exist throughout the world. In today's metal buildings, corrugated panels are placed over basic frameworks of posts and beams. The corrugated panels are connected together at their meeting points by the use of non-structural closures, covers and seals to allow the buildings to serve a useful function. Attempts to weld corrugated members together at their meeting points in buildings does not work because the thin gage, high strength panels suffer a great loss of strength when heated and the extreme heat of welding causes serious deformations in the thin sheet stock. Welding such panel junctures is not amenable to these buildings because such extensive welding and inspection at a building site have not been deemed feasible. Further, the extreme heat of welding greatly reduces the strength and causes serious deformation of thin panels used in metal buildings. Furthermore, if other materials, such as a high strength plastic, or the like are used in constructing such buildings, welding is also not feasible.

When two similar structural members meet at a juncture, the ideal connection should allow the total internal forces in each element (i.e., shear web, flange) to be transferred to its adjoining member element without redistribution of the internal stresses in the member. This transfer may be referred to as total load connectivity (“TLC”.) When metal corrugated panels meet at a juncture, currently no method exists to achieve TLC joints other than welding. Welding of corrugated panels in low-rise metal building has been found not to be feasible, as discussed above. The low-rise metal building industry has found ways to work around the concept of TLC at the joints and, have accepted far less than ideal TLC connections. Yet countless useful buildings exist throughout the world.

One major industry using welded metal corrugated panels successfully is the intermodal shipping container industry. These shipping containers utilize low-strength weldments built in a factory environment to produce very sturdy, strong boxes. Their welded joints truly deliver TLC connection, but suffer a weight penalty from the low weld strength. Many of these shipping boxes or containers are retired each year. Many more have been adapted to be used to create useful buildings, such as apartments, homes, offices, schools, sheds, warehouses, and the like.

However, although shipping containers are used in large multiples to create various size low-rise buildings, these shipping containers limit the designer in how they may be connected and how high they may be stacked (normally, seven high, such as seen on container ships.) Additionally, several other issues arise from using shipping boxes for habitable buildings. For example, older, retired boxes must be cleaned-up, decontaminated and repaired. The standard size of such boxes, such as the fixed 8 foot width and varying fixed lengths of the shipping boxes must be adapted for use in assembling buildings. When shipping boxes are stacked side-by-side and vertically, the building has double walls and floors/ceilings at stacked interfaces, leaving gaps to be dealt with. Also, the designer must live with shallow corrugated design patterns in metal used in shipping boxes, which deny the designer the selection of a different material and different corrugated pattern best suited for a specific building's needs. Additionally, the boxes must be modified to accommodate doors, windows and utilities. Finally, the boxes must be separately delivered, one at a time, to a building site by truck or other means.

Thus, there exists a need in the art for an improved method and system for forming buildings, made from corrugated metal, plastic or other available materials, which are frameless, but which have TLC joints for improved strength that allows them to be either pre-formed in selected configurations and shipped to a site for easy assembly; and/or easily assembled on-site by use of specifically formed cyclically repetitive edge members that exactly conform to the shape of the corrugated panels being used. Additionally, one important consideration that also has to be taken into account has to do with shipment size. To avoid complex shipping constraints, a preferred concept will limit the physical size of a shipment from a factory to a building site. The intermodal shipping container industry has determined that a typical large box size of 8′×8′×40′ is amenable to their several modes of transport. It will most probably be used for this new frameless building factory subassembly for shipment to a building site, as well.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventive subject matter provides methods and systems in which formed corrugated panels of any material, and exactly matching cyclically variable corner elements are formed by roll forming, for example, by using the roll forming machine and methods described in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,592, 5,489,463 and 8,573,012. These roll formed sheet material panels and identical matching corner elements are preferably metal although they could be constructed of other materials. The panels and other elements areassembled together at a working site, without the need for a support frame or welded connections, by use of mechanical fastening means to form practically any desired shape or size building, depending on the strength and stiffness of the materials used in the panels and corner elements. The constructed buildings will have TLC at the joints to provide a more secure and stronger building, unavailable with any known method or system, as has been demonstrated by buildings using stacked welded shipping boxes.

In one aspect of the present invention a frameless building is formed by joining together first and second ends of selected corrugated panels to first and second ends of adjacent corrugated panels by connecting them to a matching repetitive bent corner member by means of at least one mechanical fastening element. The formed sheet material and corner elements are preferably designed and formed from specifically selected metal or other materials to achieve the best desired results for the frameless building being assembled, depending on the selected site. Additionally, once the corrugated subassembly panels are positioned at the building site, continuous high-strength cap members are preferably placed over the corner elements or connectors. The cap member turns the as-yet uncapped corrugated panel assembly into a true built-up deep beam spanning between wall supports, using known structures design methods. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various corrugated designs can be used consistently with the inventive concepts discussed herein, based on the different materials being used, the site selected and other variables, such as climate and intended use of the finally assembled building. Additionally, it is to be understood that doors, windows and utilities, outside wall closures, decorative features and other desired, needed and/or known elements of buildings are to be added, using available technology and in accordance with local building codes, when finalizing the frameless buildings of the present invention.

Broadly, the present invention includes a method to form frameless buildings having joints with Total Load Connectivity at the joints to improve their strength and allow a myriad of heretofore unavailable designs to be configured for both aesthetic and practical reasons.

Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.

The following discussion provides many example embodiments of the inventive subject matter. Although each embodiment represents a single combination of inventive elements, the inventive subject matter is considered to include all possible combinations of the disclosed elements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C, and a second embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventive subject matter is also considered to include other remaining combinations of A, B, C, or D, even if not explicitly disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred maximum size frameless building component of the present invention, which is factory assembled and capable of being transported, without constraints on shipping, by all known means of transport, in an intermodal shipping container;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a simple four story high building cell constructed at a building site using two components shown in FIG. 1 to assemble a 4 level single-cell building;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of four FIG. 2 building cells assembled to create a 4-story building in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is similar to the building of FIG. 3 with the middle wall elements replaced by sets of beams and columns and the floor and ceiling levels supported by beams; while FIG. 4A is an enlarged detail of FIG. 4 taken along line 4A;

FIG. 5 is an end view of a one-cell or unit building unit formed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an end view of building having multiple rooms or usable spaces, side-by-side and stacked in accordance with the principals of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a detailed view of a central vertical wall of a 2-story building similar to FIG. 3, showing more detail of the connectivity of factory sub-assembled parts;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged partial top view of the onsite assembly of factory sub-assembled; parts;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged partial top view of an on-site assembly of factory sub-assembled parts; and

FIG. 10 is an enlarged partial exploded view of a pair of assembled corrugated panels joined by a cyclically variable corner element, with a linear element used as a beam cap element to provide bending strength and rigidity to the corrugated panel spanning between support points at the foundation corners of the building.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in drawings, the present invention provides a method and system to construct buildings of substantially any shape and size using corrugated metal panels secured together by cyclically variable edge members such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,592 and 5,489,463, without the need of a separate frame for the building. The only limit to the shape and size of the buildings would be the imagination of the designer and the strength, shape and thickness of the material(s) used to form the corrugated panels and the cyclically variable corner or edge elements or members.

Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 shows a building component 1 that is factory assembled and sized and dimensioned to a maximum size that fits in and is capable of being transported, without any constraints or need for adaptation, in available intermodal shipping containers (maximum size of 8′ wide×8′ high×40′ long), by known means of transport, such as truck, train, container ship or air cargo. This building component 1 includes a plurality of cyclically variable elements 2, secured intermittently to the elongated continuous corrugated panel 3. In some design configurations, back-to-back elements 2 are used where horizontal corrugated panels attach on both sides of the component 1. The vertical edges of the building component 1 may include vertical edge joining elements 4, such as panel-to-panel edge connections and/or edge members such as corner posts.

FIG. 2 shows a simple 4-story building 5, constructed at a building site by using 2 building components 1 as sides, with a plurality of further corrugated panels 3 secured between cyclically variable elements 2 on the opposite sides to form four levels of usable 8′×12′ rooms or spaces 6.

FIG. 3 shows a building 7 comprised of four of the FIG. 2 building cells 5 assembled together, side-by-side and end-to-end to create a 4-story building with each floor having two free open spaces 8 that are 12′×16′.

FIG. 4 shows a building 9 that is similar to the building of FIG. 3, however, the middle wall elements have been replaced by sets of beams and columns 11, 13 to provide support to the floor and ceiling levels. This provides an open usable space of 24′×16′. FIG. 4A illustrates the placement of known cyclically variable closure elements 15, such as described in Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,592 and 5,489,463 and shown in FIG. 24 thereof, referred to above in paragraph 0009. These closure elements are placed between the corrugated metal floor and ceiling panels and its support beam and column set to create a Total Load Connection for the vertical shear load transfer between the horizontal corrugated panels and their support beams 13.

FIG. 5 shows a frameless building having a single cell, room or unit 10 formed from corrugated panels, including two vertical walls 12, a floor deck 14 and a roof deck 16. The walls 12, floor deck 14 and roof deck 16 include first and second ends that are secured together by cyclically variable corner or edge members 18, 20, 22, 24 using mechanical fasteners, such as rivets or bolts, to form joints that have total load connectivity. The dimensions of all of the elements of the building 10 may vary, depending on the specific design, the angle of the corrugated panels, the geometry of the corrugated panels, the desired space height, floor/ceiling spans and the metal used to form the elements.

FIG. 6 shows a frameless building 26, similar to FIG. 5, except that it is expanded to create a plurality of cells, rooms, spaces or units 10′, placed side-by-side and stacked, to create a simplified multi-story and wide metal building structure without the need of separate support frame or similar structure.

FIG. 7 shows in detail how a larger frameless metal building, such as 26 may be constructed using parts that are partly assembled in a factory and others at the building site. For example, a central vertical wall 32 may be assembled in a factory. The wall 32 includes a corrugated wall panel 34 having cyclically variable connectors 36 riveted or otherwise mechanically secured thereto at the ends and centrally along its length to allow flooring to be secured thereto at a building site. Additionally, cap members 38 may be bonded or secured over connectors 36 on the vertical wall assembly 32 to provide the panel bending strength. Floor decks 40, 41 and a further floor or roof deck 42 may be mechanically secured to the cyclically variable connectors 36 of the corrugated wall panel 32 at the building site when erecting a frameless building. The various parts may be separately shipped or packaged and shipped together to the building site.

FIG. 8 illustrates an enlarged partial view of an upper corner of FIG. 5, wherein the corner member 24 is secured to the ends of adjoining corrugated panels 12, 14 by means of rivets 52.

FIG. 9 illustrates an enlarged partial view of an interior junction as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, wherein corner members 36 are secured to vertical panel 32 and the interior ends of two lateral floor decks 41 by rivets 54.

FIG. 10 shows an enlarged partial exploded view of a completed corrugated connector member joint having a cyclically variable corner member 44 mechanically securing two corrugated panels 46, 48 together, with a cap member 50 in position to cover and add strength to the joint when secured over the corner member.

FIGS. 1-4A show how a building designer can easily create any shape, size and style of useful low-rise frameless corrugated metal building through choosing combinations of described component elements. Once a configuration is chosen for a particular building project the final details of foundation design and interfaces can be identified. The major vertical load transfer points to the site's foundation are now identified. Attach fittings connect the building load transfer members to corresponding support points in the foundation. Commonly, such points are at corners where panels meet, and at other columns or posts included in the design. Other known methods of foundations also could be used to provide secure connections of frameless metal or other material buildings to the ground, as well.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced. It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of assembling a frameless building from roll formed corrugated sheet material comprising the steps of: forming a plurality of specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels having first and second ends; forming cyclically repetitive bent corner members that exactly match the shape of the specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels; and joining the first and second ends of selected corrugated panels to first and second ends of adjacent corrugated panels by a matching repetitive bent corner member by means of at least one mechanical fastening element to form a joint providing total load connectivity.
 2. The method of assembling a frameless building of claim 1, further including the step of adding a cap member over the formed joint.
 3. The method of claim 2, further including the step of forming a box structure having a plurality of joints formed by mechanically fastened together corrugated panels.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the mechanical fasteners are selected from the group of rivets, bolts, staples, bonding or combination thereof.
 5. The method of claim 1, further including the step of partially forming sub-assemblies of at least one corrugated panel and matching repetitive bent corner member for shipment to a building site for assembly with other corrugated panels.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the fastened together panels and repetitive bent corner members may be at substantially any angle to each other so as to form differently shaped and sized buildings.
 7. A method of assembling a frameless metal building from roll formed corrugated metal sheet material comprising the steps of: forming a plurality of specifically shaped and sized metal corrugated panels having first and second ends; forming cyclically repetitive bent metal corner members that exactly match the shape of the specifically shaped and sized metal corrugated panels; and joining the first and second ends of selected metal corrugated panels to first and second ends of adjacent metal corrugated panels by a matching repetitive bent metal corner member by means of at least one mechanical fastening element.
 8. The method of assembling a frameless metal building of claim 7, further including the step of adding a metal cap member over the formed joint to provide bending strength.
 9. The method of claim 8, further including the step of forming a metal box structure having a plurality of joints formed by mechanically fastened together corrugated panels.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the mechanical fasteners are selected from the group of rivets, bolts, staples, bonding or combination thereof.
 11. The method of claim 7, further including the step of partially forming a metal sub-assembly comprised of at least one metal corrugated panel secured together with at least one matching metal repetitive bent corner member for shipment to a building site for assembly with other corrugated panels.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein the fastened together panels and repetitive bent corner members may be at substantially any angle to each other so as to form differently shaped and sized frameless metal buildings.
 13. A method of forming a frameless building having joints with Total Load Connectivity at the joints for improved and design adaptability comprising the steps of forming a plurality of specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels having first and second ends; forming cyclically repetitive bent corner members that exactly match the shape of the specifically shaped and sized metal corrugated panels; and joining ends of selected specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels to adjacent ends of other selected specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels to matching repetitive bent corner members by means of a non-welded connecting means to form building subassemblies.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the specifically shaped and sized corrugated panels and the cyclically repetitive bent corner members are made from high-strength sheet metal.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the non-welded connecting means is a mechanical fastener that may be applied at a factory or at a building site.
 16. The method of claim 13 wherein the building subassemblies are sized and dimensioned so as to be readily transportable to a building site using available transportation means.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the building subassemblies are sized and dimensioned so as to fit into a box shaped cargo envelope that is 8′ wide×8′ tall and 40′ long. 